creators_name: Velmans, Max editors_name: Banerjee, Rahul editors_name: Chakrabarti, Bikas type: bookchapter datestamp: 2007-01-31 lastmod: 2011-03-11 08:56:45 metadata_visibility: show title: HOW TO SEPARATE CONCEPTUAL ISSUES FROM EMPIRICAL ONES IN THE STUDY OF CONSCIOUSNESS ispublished: inpress subjects: neuro-psy subjects: cog-psy subjects: phil-mind full_text_status: public keywords: consciousness, mind, brain, cognitive science, neuroscience, hard problem, easy problem, first-person, third-person, phenomenology, Indian philosophy, dualism, materialism, reductionism, reflexive monism, causation, causal problem, natural fact abstract: Modern consciousness studies are in a healthy state, with many progressive empirical programmes in cognitive science, neuroscience and related sciences, using relatively conventional third-person research methods. However not all the problems of consciousness can be resolved in this way. These problems may be grouped into problems that require empirical advance, those that require theoretical advance, and those that require a re-examination of some of our pre-theoretical assumptions. I give examples of these, and focus on two problems—what consciousness is, and what consciousness does—that require all three. In this, careful attention to conscious phenomenology and finding an appropriate way to relate first-person evidence to third-person evidence appears to be central to progress. But we may also need to re-examine what we take to be “natural facts” about the world, and how we can know them. The same appears to be true for a trans-cultural understanding of consciousness that combines classical Indian phenomenological methods with the third-person methods of Western science. date: 2007 date_type: published publication: Models of Brain and Mind: Physical, Computational and Psychological Approaches publisher: Elsevier refereed: FALSE referencetext: Baars, B. (2006) The global workspace theory of consciousness. In M. Velmans and S. Schneider (eds.) (2006) The Blackwell Companion to Consciousness. New York: Blackwell. Banks, W.P. and Pockett, S. (2006) Benjamin Libet's work on the neuroscience of free will. In M. Velmans and S. Schneider (eds.) (2006) The Blackwell Companion to Consciousness. New York: Blackwell. Chalmers, D. (1995) Facing up to the problems of consciousness. Journal of Consciousness Studies, 2(3), 200-219. Crick, F. (1994) The Astonishing Hypothesis: The scientific search for the soul, London: Simon & Schuster. Dennett, D.C. (1991) Consciousness Explained, London: Allen Lane, The Penguin Press. Dewey, J. (1991[1910]) How We Think, Buffalo, NY: Prometheus. Eccles, J.C. (1980) The Human Psyche, New York: Springer. Farthing, J.W. (1992) The Psychology of Consciousness, Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall. Lenneberg, E.H. (1967) Biological foundations of language, New York:Wiley. Nagel, T. (1974) ‘What it is it like to be a bat?’ Philosophical Review 83:435-451. Panksepp, J. (2006) Affective consciousness. In M. Velmans and S. Schneider (eds.) (2006) The Blackwell Companion to Consciousness. New York: Blackwell. Saksena, Shri Krishna (1965) The story of Indian philosophy. In V. Ferm (ed) History of Philosophical Systems. Paterson, N.J: Littlefield, Adams &Co. Velmans, M. (1991a) Is human information processing conscious? Behavioral and Brain Sciences 14(4):651-701. Velmans, M. (1991b) Consciousness from a first-person perspective. Behavioral and Brain Sciences 14(4):702-726. Velmans, M.(1993) Consciousness, causality and complementarity. Behavioral and Brain Sciences, 16(2), 404-416. Velmans, M. (1996) Consciousness and the “causal paradox.” Behavioral and Brain Sciences, 19(3), 537-542. Velmans, M. (2000) Understanding Consciousness, London: Routledge, Psychology Press Velmans, M (2001) Heterophenomenology versus critical phenomenology: A dialogue with Dan Dennett. On-line debate at http://cogprints.soton.ac.uk/documents/disk0/00/00/17/95 /index.html. Velmans, M.(2002a) “How could conscious experiences affect brains?” Journal of Consciousness Studies, 9(11), 3-29. Velmans, M. (2002b) “Making sense of causal interactions between consciousness and brain.” Journal of Consciousness Studies, 9(11), 69-95. Velmans, M. (2003) Preconscious free will. Journal of Consciousness Studies, 10(12), 42-61. Velmans, M. (2006) Dualism, reductionism, and reflexive monism. In M. Velmans and S. Schneider (eds.) (2006) The Blackwell Companion to Consciousness. New York: Blackwell. Velmans, M. (2007) Heterophenomenology versus critical phenomenology. Phenomenology and the Cognitive Sciences (in press) Velmans, M. and Schneider, S (eds.) (2006) The Blackwell Companion to Consciousness. New York: Blackwell. citation: Velmans, Prof Max (2007) HOW TO SEPARATE CONCEPTUAL ISSUES FROM EMPIRICAL ONES IN THE STUDY OF CONSCIOUSNESS. [Book Chapter] (In Press) document_url: http://cogprints.org/5380/1/Conceptual_vs_emprical_issues.pdf